For those who are interested, our 2016 Sweetheart Sweepstakes special advertising section is over, and we are ready to announce our 23 winners! Before those names are revealed, we want to thank all the advertisers and generous prize sponsors. This year we received a total of more than 900 valid entries. With that kind of participation, I know that we accomplished what we set out to do, and that was to find a creative way to bring extra business to local establishments including merchants, restaurants and service providers.
During the process of prize pick-up and bucket drop-off/retrieval, the staff at the Signal Tribune did some Valentine’s Day shopping of its own. That’s what I call practicing what we preach!
For holidays, and every other day of the year, I encourage our readers to remember to shop locally so we can keep our immediate economy stimulated.
Buying online and/or out of the area are status quo for some folks. However, those of us who want to keep our local businesses thriving do spend our dollars in our own neighborhoods.
Once we all start to shop local, eat local and share local, we can start a trend that will sustain itself. Local spending is not a fad; it can be a paradigm shift back to days of yore when neighbors knew neighbors, and when our shopkeepers knew our names, buying habits and needs.
Getting back to the subject of Sweetheart Sweepstakes, I hope those who entered enjoyed the process as much as we enjoyed putting it all together. Winners were contacted by phone Thursday afternoon. Who won? Below I’ve included their names, the titles of their prize packages and from which participating business their entry was drawn. If you didn’t win this year, try again in 2017!
